Look Both Ways

A freak accident involving a dog-walker and a freight train brings together a photographer with testicular cancer, a traumatized witness, a suicidal journalist, and a woman who has just learned she's pregnant with an unwanted baby. Sounds like a riot, said James Bowman in The New York Sun. But as heavy as the subject matter is, first-time Australian director Sarah Watt manages to make the movie pleasurable to watch. For one, it's 'œbeautiful to look at.' Watt is a veteran artist and animator, and her live-action work is punctuated by gorgeous watercolor cartoons portraying her characters' dreams and fantasies. The film has won a number of awards at various film festivals, said Michael Atkinson in The Village Voice. And it's no wonder'”Look Both Ways is a perfect fit on the festival circuit because of its fresh visuals and thought-provoking metaphysics. But like many other ultra-serious indie pics, the movie has a certain pretentious flavor that reeks of film school. 'œRename it Death, Actually and a sense of its fluffy, faux-angsty approach is brought to bear.' Even if you ignore all the cliché montages and overlong musical interludes, this film is a bore, said Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times. The intertwining-lives conceit that just won Crash the Best Picture Oscar is now officially tired, and it's hard to understand why we'd want to watch these characters mope around for 'œone of the most depressing weekends in movie history.'

Rating: PG-13

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